art from my life

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Our family took up kayaking seven years ago, when looking for an accessible and fun family water sport. We have loved being out on the water, in many varied locations. It is usually very peaceful and restorative.

For a long time I’ve wanted to paint the juxtapositon of the brightly colored kayaks and the peaceful settings. I’ve tried before, but never seemed to hit the right feeling. Using the Princeton Catalyst blades with acrylics on an orange ground seems to get much closer to the feeling I’ve wanted.

This was from a trip this summer to Lake Monroe, Indiana. We had a dear friend visiting from California and we took him kayaking for the first time in his 78 years! He thoroughly enjoyed it.

In September, I had my second Show at the Bellvue Gallery in Bloomington, IN, with 14 paintings displayed. We had an Opening Reception on Friday, Sept. 7, at which I and my family members played live music. The Show hosts, Emily and Paul, who spend a lot of time in the Bellevue Gallery and the attached Farmer House Museum said they felt that the old house (built in 1869) was happy to hear live music again, as that would have been a regular feature in the house in its earlier days.

I received several compliments on the paintings, and interest in a future commission.

These four paintings are all composed of the triad Cadmium Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Magenta and Ultramarine Blue, and each painted in a little over one hour. The first three were from photos I took in my garden this year, and the fourth was from a photo I took in England in 2013.

I began each one as an under-painting using the triad and the mini-blades. It is such an exciting and freeing way to start!

Now I’m adding a time limit (guideline!) to my triad limit. I’m trying to keep each painting time to around an hour—challenging! This triad is Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Red Medium and Ultramarine Blue (plus Titanium White).

I decided to try the skin tones in the same acrylic colors, and I was using one of my larger brushes to try and capture the big tones and not fuss with the detail. I was pretty excited that I actually could paint as loosely as this!

This time I used the Catalyst Blade for the background and the skirt. It was great fun!

I’m trying to limit myself to simple triads of colors this summer. This one is Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Red Medium and Ultramarine Blue (plus Titanium White, but I think of that as a constant necessity, not part of the triad).

I used oils for the skin, changing the cadmium yellow medium for yellow ochre.

I used a photograph of my granddaughter at a fast food restaurant play place as the basis for this painting. I love the wildly mixed colors, which feel to me like the energy, noise and sometimes chaos, of these play places.